This invention concerns a folding ski that can be used for all the following ski disciplines: downhill, cross-country, alpine, acrobatic, snowboard and telemark.
It is well-known that skis of all types used today, whether for alpine skiing, Nordic skiing, telemark, or snowboard, are pieces of equipment which vary in length and width according to the various uses, and which are made in such a way that their bulk can not be varied, given that the body of the equipment is a single unbroken piece. This creates difficulties for transporting the equipment and means using special ski racks fixed to the car roof, given that it is the length in particular that is the limiting factor.
Putting the skis on the roof of a vehicle, as happens with the skis currently in commerce, has been shown in recent studies to be highly dangerous. In the case of an accident (crashes between vehicles or bumps and knocks received during normal driving), the skis can become detached from their support as a result of the impact and their kinetic energy, becoming xe2x80x9cspearsxe2x80x9d hurtling towards another vehicle and its occupants, with the risk of causing serious damage or injury.
The skis produced today differ from one another on the basis of the construction methods used by the various manufacturers; furthermore, even within the same ski type, there a differences due to the specific final use. However, it is possible to organise and classify the essential ski parts that constitute the equipment. It consists of an underside for sliding the metal edges on either side of the underside for cutting into the snow, a core made in wood or injected material, an outer covering made in composite materials and with printed designs. Furthermore, it is common practice nowadays to fix a shock-absorber plate between the ski and the ski boot bindings, which helps improve the elasticity of ski-binding unit as well as increasing the distance between the boots themselves and the underside of the ski.
The aim of tis invention is to supply a folding ski, with reduced bulk in terms of length.
In order to overcome the above cited drawbacks of the traditional ski, folding skies have already been proposed. In particular, patents U.S. Pat. No. 3,689,093 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,632,418 disclose folding skies for use in any discipline, divided into a front part and a rear part which are destined to fit together in an inclined plane with respect to their soles when the ski is ready for the use and provided with simple hinging means for folding the two parts of the ski, sole against sole.
These folding skies, however, don""t meet the technical-functional features which are nowadays requested to a ski, especially for downhill, such as a grater elasticity combined with the use of raising and shock-absorber plates.
Another aim, deriving from the first, is to make a ski that maintains the physical and mechanical characteristics required to practice the sport of skiing in all its forms, but which can be folded in half in order to make transportation easier, no longer by using special systems, but using any kind of container with reduced dimensions, which, consequently, can be stowed easily in the boot of the vehicle.
These aims are achieved with a ski for use in all skiing disciplines, consisting of:
a separate front and back part of the ski, each having an underside and edges, with the adjoining ends designed to fit together;
a hinging device located between said adjoining ends for joining them together rigidly in a position that is both aligned and co-planar with the ski, and which will allow the two parts of the ski to fold over (without becoming completely detached) in an overlapping position, underside against underside; and
means for stabilising the two parts of the ski in the aligned position.
This invention is applicable to skis both with or without the usual shock-absorbing plate and the support platform for the ski boot bindings.